Wish-List Wednesday #7

 

Welcome to Wish-List Wednesday! Every Wednesday I will tell you about the books, series or book related things that are highest on my wish-list.

For this week I have chosen Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

 

Burial Rites:

Published on September 10th 2013 by Little, Brown and Company.

 

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes’s death looms, the farmer’s wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they’ve heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?  -Goodreads

 

This book revolves around one of the most famous murder in Icelandic history.

Hannah Kent came to Iceland in 2003 as an exchange student. During her stay she heard the story about the murder Agnes Magnúsdóttir is supposed to have committed and later is executed for. Later she gathered all doc

uments about it and her book is a result of that. What really happened? Was Agnes on the wrong place at the wrong time?

I read about this murder many years ago in one of my history class, the last execution in Iceland. Agnes Magnúsdóttir and Friðrik Sigurðsson were executed, beheaded, on January 12th 1830 for the murder of Nathan Ketilsson and Pétur Jónsson.

I am really looking forward to read this book. It is not often that foreigners write about something that happened in Iceland.

 

 




Wish-List Wednesday #6

 

Welcome to Wish-List Wednesday! Every Wednesday I will tell you about the books, series or book related things that are highest on my wish-list.

For this week I have chosen Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein.

 

Premeditated:

Expected to be published on October 8th 2013.

 

A week ago, Dinah’s cousin Claire cut her wrists.Five days ago, Dinah found Claire’s diary and discovered why.
Three days ago, Dinah stopped crying and came up with a plan.
Two days ago, she ditched her piercings and bleached the black dye from her hair.
Yesterday, knee socks and uniform plaid became a predator’s camouflage.
Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.
By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.  -Goodreads

If you enjoyed “Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why, ” you will race through the pages of this YA novel as 17-year old Dinah pieces together the mystery that surrounds the near death of her 14-year old cousin Claire. While Claire is holding on her for her life in the hospital, Dinah goes in search of the boy Claire writes about in her journal. The boy who forced her to do something she didn’t want to do. The boy who caused her such humiliation that the thought of having to live one more day was just too much. Dinah is on a mission for revenge, but as things start to unfold, her plan isn’t as simple as it seemed.  -TheBookDepository

 

 

This book is said to be similar to Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why, which I have heard good things about. I have never heard about this author, Josin L. McQuein. She is the author of a series called Arclight. Book one is called Arclight (2013) and book two is called Meridian (2014).

 

I’m looking forward to this one.

 

 

 




Ten by Gretchen McNeil

 

Name & Author: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (Harper Teen)

Release Date: September 18th 2012

Genres: YA, Mystery, Fiction

 


Summary:

SHHHH!
Don’t spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine? -Goodreads

 

My Thoughts:

This was better than I anticipated. I have read the original story, And Then There Where None, by Agatha Christie and loved it very much.

I did not have high expectations for this one, but somehow ended up really liking it.

Gretchen McNeil’s writing is very good. She sets up creepy atmosphere when needed and her thriller/creepy scenes are scary. The story line is predictable, especially if you have read the original story. At some parts I found too similar to Agatha Christie’s book. In Ten, McNeil mostly only changes the names and the deaths.

I like how the relationship between the teens develop throughout the book and the suspense trying to figure out how they are all connected. Some characters were in my opinion little bit too fake, they didn’t stand out and didn’t seem real enough.

In conclusion I think this book is good, but I would recommend to read first And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

3.5/5 stars!